IN A MOMENT I shall jump feet-first into a stagnant pond. But first comes the full disclosure. If MPs are being asked to say what other paid roles they have, then columnists should also be prepared to withstand such scrutiny.

So I am happy to report that in my parallel life as a part-time novelist, the last financial year saw me hand over to the taxman a sum approaching 10 pounds. Other years have required somewhat greater levies, although it is fair to say that the super-tax bracket remains a little out of reach.

So if I can come clean as an occasional writer, full-time journalist, scribbler, columnist, arranger of other people’s words on the page and so forth, why shouldn’t MPs do the same? The man in charge of the Committee on Standards In Public Life thinks that they should have to – and, for what it’s worth, so do I.

Lord Bew told the Observer last weekend that all candidates standing in May’s General Election should be forced to disclose whether they intend to have a second job while in Parliament. Or possibly even a third job, for all I know, as times are tough at the top.

Lord Bew complained that all parties need to unite on this matter, to address the “depressingly low” levels of trust in politicians – something brought to a new nadir after two former Foreign Secretaries, Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind, were caught out in a journalistic sting. The pair had offered to use their influence on behalf of a what turned out to be a fictitious Chinese company. Pounds in their thousands were said to have been promised.

During Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Labour leader Ed Miliband called for a ban on MPs holding paid directorships and consultancies. He’s right, of course, but nothing much is likely to happen.

Lord Bew points out that whenever this matter has been raised in the past, efforts to act have been blocked.

It’s telling, isn’t it, that for people at the bottom of life’s pile, having two or perhaps three jobs is a necessity and the only way through. Whereas for some MPs, it’s a lucrative perk on top of what is by most people’s standards a well-rewarded job.

The argument for allowing such sidelines for MPs is the usual one. You know how it goes. If you want the best people for the job, you have to allow them to be fully rewarded. This is the same rather self-serving line used by top bankers and the like, who seem to set the rules to benefit themselves and their glittering companions sitting on well-padded seats in the upper echelons. Or is that too cynical a view?

As for MPs, they should be as honest with us as possible – and that should include making public any well-paid jobs or comfy sinecures they might have lined up.

 

• SALFORD on a Sunday afternoon has its charms, but not the bit between where our son lives and the Quays.

With its open water, quayside homes, bars and restaurants, media types at the BBC and ITV, and the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays definitely has something.

To get there, we walked through the back streets for 15 minutes or so. The day was grey and cold so the place wasn’t looking at its best, but to be fair Mediterranean sunshine would have struggled to burnish what we saw.

It was the litter that did it, almost knee-deep along a fence next to a primary school, and scattered across every available open space after that, a filthy urban carpet. Nice new cars were parked outside some of the houses, alongside the usual detritus: wrappers, coke cans, coffee cups, bottles and so on. People who moan about the litter in York should go there for a day out, just to make themselves feel better about where they live.

Perhaps the local council can no longer afford to employ street-cleaners. It certainly looked that way. But why do people have to drop litter all the time?

I’ve never understood that – and the older I get, the less tolerance I have for those who scatter rubbish about like lazy wizards casting grubby spells.

And if the council can’t/won’t do anything, why don’t people just pick the bloody stuff up or, better still, not drop it in the first place?